We assembled a bin with a variety of things to make it easier for kids to write friends or family. Stationary sets, paper of all sizes, envelopes of all sizes, stickers, return address labels (though I’m not letting them near the stamps, they still have to come to me for those!) There are also some cards for different occasions and some craft stuff to make cards. If I trusted my children more I would include crayons, markers & pencils as well but we still keep those out of the toddler’s reach. 🙂

I didn’t buy anything in particular for this set, I just went around the house collecting items and assembled them in one place. On Sundays we try to write a letter to a friend or family member (near or far, since even local cousins have fun exchanging drawings & letters.) The little kids can doodle or draw, big kids can write, and it encourages me to remember to take the time to include a handwritten note to people we love as well. If I were more creative I would let the kids decorate the box but we’ll have to wait until I have some more energy to tackle that.

I’ve noticed that having the box down and easily accessible has encouraged the kids to grab some paper when the urge strikes and get started. We try to always send thank you notes and this makes it a bit more fun and gives them some control over their medium as well. I’m optimistic this will get all of us into the habit of writing letters more often and in our instant contact world of IM and texting, I think these notes are something special we should preserve. I have boxes of letters from penpals and family over the year and I love to see their handwriting and have that written record of our discussions and our relationship over the year. I hope my children will have that experience, too, so I’m trying to foster their penpal friendships.